Fairytales

The princess always gets the prince. That's how it's always been. When she was little and would read her books, she knew her prince would come. It was all over the stories, after all. It was what was taught to her ever since she could remember.

The prince rescued the princess.

The prince fell in love with the princess.

The princess fell in love with the prince.

They lived happily ever after.

Day after day she would daydream about him. Her grades weren't perfect due to this near non-stop daydreaming. What would he look like? Would he be blonde? Would he have long hair? Would his armor be white? Would he have a horse? Until the day she turned 18, she always thought this. She was trapped in this castle and wanted desperately to be rescued.

Then he arrived.

He wasn't wearing armor and definitely didn't look like the fairytale knight she had been so familiar with. But there he was. And he rescued her. Since she was a princess, she had to fall in love with him. That was how it went. That was how it should be.

He didn't have a steed. He had a dog. It was close enough for her. She studied him frivolously. This wasn't how the knights she was told about acted. But it was fascinating. Breaking from the norms…this must be her special knight. The one destined for her. The one she was taught to fall in love with. Consequently, she did.

But then, another person entered her life. She traveled the world with her knight, his "steed" and his companions. And as time passed she realized her knight was no longer a knight. She tried to deny the changes. This had to be him. It was just like the stories. He rescued her, weren't they supposed to live happily ever after? Day after day she told herself this. He even rescued her twice. But he wasn't the one that truly saved her.

It was her that did the actual saving.

She wasn't fun to be around. In fact, this girl scared her. But as time passed, she realized the girl wasn't as mean as she let on to be. This girl was nice to her. Kind to her. Cared about her. And definitely was less rude than her knight whenever she was involved. But they were destined to be friends. The mage was just a friend; always a friend in the novels. Therefore, she would always just be a friend in her life. It couldn't be any other way. That would be wrong.

But then, she was saved again. She was cured of her toxin to the world. It wasn't the knight that saved her. Her knight helped in it and she was forever grateful, yet confused. Wasn't he supposed to be in the lead? Wasn't he supposed to rescue her with help from his companions? Why was the mage doing all the saving? A mage wasn't a knight. She still kept up her beliefs, regardless. It was all she ever knew. Yet everyone around her seemed to stray from the norm. They weren't chained to the single storyline beliefs that were pounded into her brain. Why was she?

But it was wrong to think otherwise. To do so would deny her mentors and disappoint them. But her knight…he didn't seem to care. That in itself was straying from what she knew and felt familiar with. The knight was supposed to always care about his princess. Only his princess. She felt her love becoming forced.

Now for the happy ending. The knight sweeps the princess off her feet and carries her away to his castle. Her knight didn't have a castle. Her knight didn't act the way she expected. The knight sent her back to her castle and left.

She still loved him.

The princess waited for her knight to return. He would. She believed he would. He never did. The princess found herself waiting for a full year. Someone came to rescue her once more. Was it her knight? Did he finally return to take her away to complete the happily ever after ending she had been dreaming about? The one who rescued her was not the knight she knew. The knight that swept her away wasn't the knight she traveled with. This knight that gave her a home and her happily ever after ending wasn't him. It wasn't the knight she had forced herself to fall in love with. It was a new knight.

A knight disguised as a mage.